Liquor commercials Consumers must be realistic about how advertising works

Liquor commercials
Consumers must be realistic about how advertising works

Jan. 12, 2002

Bottoms up.

Last month, NBC announced a policy change that will allow commercials for hard liquor. That marks the first time in recent memory that such ads have appeared on television.

The network also issued some guidelines intended to deflect criticism of its new ads. They’ll only run after 9 p.m., they won’t feature actors (or supermodels) younger than 30, and they won’t feature athletes. No one will actually take a drink. They’re also not supposed to imply that drinking is healthy, relieves tension, renders anyone more sexually attractive or proficient, makes the world go away, etc. Liquor advertisers must also spend considerable money advocating responsible drinking.

There’s some precedent for this. Retired Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway didn’t see anything wrong with promoting Coors beer on television, for those who hadn’t already been seduced by the Swedish Bikini Team or fallen prey to the beer dog or the vampirish Elvira. Prescription drugs are regularly touted on television, with the purpose of sending patients to their doctors to demand a mood-altering medication. The distinctions are vague at best. Lately, we’ve also been treated to commercials for phone sex. But the fact that other questionable advertising runs doesn’t mean we need any more.

The witching hour of 9 p.m. isn’t magical either. We’d all like to think that impressionable children are in bed by 9 and that most of them only watch television in the presence of responsible adults, but that’s hardly the reality of modern life.

It’s not as though most children have never witnessed the consumption of alcohol, but that’s not really the point either. All advertising exists to influence behavior, and national television advertising, designed very carefully by ad agencies that have tremendous experience in convincing people what they really need the products being advertised, should not be perceived as harmless entertainment. Liquor distillers and advertisers won’t buy advertising that doesn’t sell liquor. Why would they?

NBC’s new self-imposed "restrictions," which actually represent a loosening of its former self-imposed restriction against such advertising, are somewhat deceptive. The commercials will feature attractive people having fun, and they’ll be aimed at people who don’t have anything better to do than sit home watching prime-time television. (Surely a margarita would add to that experience. It’s much sexier than sitting in front of the tube drinking a beer.)

The fact is that if alcohol consumption is more commonly portrayed in a positive light, more people will have a positive perception of that practice, and many of those prospective consumers will be children and teens.

Didn’t we just go through this with tobacco advertising? Didn’t we learn a thing? Tobacco companies swore up and down they weren’t targeting teens, and yet which demographic group represents new consumers? Which demographic group represents those most susceptible to subtle pressures and most insecure about their own image? Which demographic group represents those least likely to identify with the dead kid in the drunk-driving commercial rather than the sexy one in the liquor commercial?

Americans have a strong aversion to being told what they can and can’t watch on television, and that’s fair. It’s hard to imagine a law that would force networks to portray liquor and tobacco only in a negative light. This isn’t likely to go away. That means its up to adults to teach young people — all young people, not just their own children — the truth about substance abuse, and for television fans to understand how their viewing habits contribute to network executives’ decisions.

If you don’t want to see liquor ads on television, don’t watch shows that include them, and tell NBC why you’re not. If you do, make very sure you’re a model of responsible consumption, and hope that your day-to-day presence in the life of a child outweighs the influence of glamorous television advertising. But don’t count on it.